Habit a Week 4: Increase Your Fiber

Like I always do, here's a report about the first three habit building blocks:

• #1: Fix Your Water Intake - I decided to lower down my water intake this week because during one of my chit-chats with my sister, she told me drinking water can make me feel bloated and could add more weight. This week, while my minimum water intake is still 12 cups, my maximum would be 15. There were days I go below 12 cups, but all in all, I still get my average water intake of 12 cups for the week. I did get to drink about 2 cups of coffee this week and a sip of iced tea from an event I attended, but I was thankful I was able to let my iced tea sit on one corner of the table and just ask the wait staff to give me a glass of water instead.
• #2: Move! - Movement this week is kinda like a yo-yo, I admit. I still am affected by the "Bloody Mary" symptoms (she still hasn't visited, but I am sensing it'll come soon), but I am thankful I get to walk more outside the house.
• #3: Eat a Veggie - Vegetable intake is easy for me, I must say. I always ask myself what vegetable should I eat the next meal, and I can say I was able to eat vegetable everyday, even if I only had a small amount of bell peppers last Wednesday (hahaha, yes I am pushing my luck).

Resolutions? Well, I will go back to my exercise program (and be firm with it, promise)... and try to include walking / jogging. Sister just said she misses Colinas Verdes, and I think I am sensing that my walk buddy is coming back on track. :) You might ask why can't I walk alone. Well, aside from the fact that I prefer having a company, our neighborhood has a lot of stray dogs, which sometimes hinder us to walk. Aside from that, walking to Colinas Verdes requires walking on the highway, and walking alone is something we don't allow because of security reasons as there are spots without that much people. These reasons may be superficial, and yes, I am really hoping I strengthen myself by jogging/running/walking as it's a dream of mine to run a marathon, so if my sister decides not to walk there anymore, I am thinking of walking from our house to the marketplace, take the jeep to Colinas Verdes and do the same going back home. Will just increase time walking and jogging around. That's a good resolution, right?

Vegetables... I will definitely try to cook Alugbati this week.



So... it's Week 4 of Lyn's Habit a Week Challenge now, and it's about Increasing the Fiber. Yes, it's similar to Week 3, but we all do know that fiber isn't just found on vegetables.

It has been said that Psyllium Husk is much stronger than Oats, but even before (circa 2007 /2008), my ex-bf Doc didn't suggest I take this. At first I thought he was just trying to sabotage my journey, but last August, I was able to had my very first Psyllium Husk intake, and while the taste didn't bother me, one biggest problem I had with it was that I didn't poop for two days since I took it. Funny, eh? It had more fiber than oats, yet it didn't help me poop! It gave me much discomfort, and sister told me she had the same experience. Mom told us we should drink lots of water, and we told her we knew that already, and I even had 19 cups of water (a little less than 4 liters) that day, but it still didn't help me poop. I decided to stop it and just go for veggies as my source of fiber.

Anyway, people react differently when taking Psyllium (I took C-Lium in case you want to know), and I am just thankful I bought the sachets instead of the big bottle. Each sachet cost 11 pesos... I still three sachets, if you want to give it a try, I can give you my C-Lium sachets. :)

I wasn't able to even try eating carrots and celery for snacks, so I guess I will just go for fruits, since it's something I am not used to do. Either it's pineapple, or papaya or apple or pomelo, I will go for fruits now. Tomorrow, I will go to the marketplace and buy either pineapple or apple (since apple is more visible than pineapple - I prefer fresh than the canned ones, by the way).

I have finished my box of Nestle Fitnesse cereal, and since we still have no plans of going to the grocery (this journey of mine sure helped the wallets breathe, haha), I will rekindle my love affair with Oatmeal. While I can't go for the 30-day Oatmeal challenge, I will surely try to eat oatmeal for dinner starting tomorrow. I am now on a lookout for new ways of eating oatmeal, but if I can't find that much, cooking it with water or mix it with a sachet of Energen will be okay for me.

What's your way of putting fiber inside your body?